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IMDbPro

Homicide à Wall Street

Original title: Deadly Illusion
  • 1987
  • R
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
4.8/10
564
YOUR RATING
Morgan Fairchild, Billy Dee Williams, John Beck, Joe Spinell, and Vanity in Homicide à Wall Street (1987)
AdventureCrimeMysteryRomanceThriller

A detective is framed for a murder he didn't commit.A detective is framed for a murder he didn't commit.A detective is framed for a murder he didn't commit.

  • Directors
    • Larry Cohen
    • William Tannen
  • Writer
    • Larry Cohen
  • Stars
    • Billy Dee Williams
    • Vanity
    • Morgan Fairchild
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.8/10
    564
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Larry Cohen
      • William Tannen
    • Writer
      • Larry Cohen
    • Stars
      • Billy Dee Williams
      • Vanity
      • Morgan Fairchild
    • 12User reviews
    • 12Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos8

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    Top cast41

    Edit
    Billy Dee Williams
    Billy Dee Williams
    • Hamberger
    Vanity
    Vanity
    • Rina
    Morgan Fairchild
    Morgan Fairchild
    • Jane Mallory…
    John Beck
    John Beck
    • Alex Burton
    Joe Cortese
    Joe Cortese
    • Detective Paul Lefferts
    • (as Joseph Cortese)
    Michael Wilding Jr.
    • Costillion
    Dennis Hallahan
    • Burton Impostor
    Jenny Cornuelle
    • Gloria Reid
    Allison Woodward
    • Nancy Costillion
    Joe Spinell
    Joe Spinell
    • Crazy Man in Gun Bureau
    • (as Joe Spinnel)
    Harriet Rogers
    • Mrs. Bains
    George Loros
    George Loros
    • Levante
    Charlie Malcolm
    • Assistant District Attorney
    Thom Curley
    • Wexler
    Richard Triggs
    • Toll Booth Attendant
    Joe Cirillo
    • Cop in Gun Bureau
    Julie Gordon
    Julie Gordon
    • Receptionist #1
    Marcy Kaplan
    • Receptionist #2
    • Directors
      • Larry Cohen
      • William Tannen
    • Writer
      • Larry Cohen
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews12

    4.8564
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    Featured reviews

    loui-in-stlouis

    ouch! ok, for billy dee and vanity fans. morgan hot and cold. what a wreck!

    watch the first half of this movie and invent your own second half. it had so much promise.

    mr. williams and ms. fairchild get it going with what seems to be an actual passion for their pairing and proximity. and why not? mr. colt 45 and ms. seduction were the hot and bother of their decade, and even if it would be a few more years before ms. sciorra and mr. snipes mixed it up in JUNGLE FEVER, the dams were ready to break. vanity fans will also not be disappointed. if you are souring from the aftertaste of lando calrissian in RETURN OF THE JEDI, this is good tonic. the best visuals of the movie are when mr. williams plants his lower body and delivers a punch. other action stars should study this, but alas, not everyone can move with the authoritative and accessible grace of billy dee.

    ms. fairchild's fans will not like ms. fairchild in liza minelli hair, but she has her moments on screen and returns to familiar coiffure and stature soon enough. her moments make good excerpts, like cuttings from a magazine. ms. vanity, in contrast, flows more happily with the film's main stream.

    the deadly illusion in this case is the illusion that mr. cohen had an ending to the film when he pitched the beginning. and no, neither this title nor its alternate title has anything to do with the story.
    6utgard14

    Spread Your Legs Baby

    Enjoyable private detective movie with some punchy dialogue and old school noir tropes. Larry Cohen wrote and co-directed this so there's lots of quirky Cohen touches. However it's uneven in spots and has lulls, most likely due to the change in directors. Billy Dee Williams is terrific as the lead character Hamberger, a private dick who's framed in a fairly routine plot that you've seen before. But the plot's not the selling point. See it for the dialogue, charismatic performance by Williams, and offbeat Cohenisms. Vanity and Morgan Fairchild provide the pretty. I'm a little confused as to why this movie has such a low score here. It's not groundbreaking but it's solid entertainment that doesn't take itself too seriously.
    4billsoccer

    Thank God blacksploitation films are not longer being made!

    Billy Dee Williams plays Hamberger, the rogue private detective who gets the girl(s) and solves the case. You really don't need to know more, as this is the entire movie! Morgan Fairchild is still beautiful, even with the 80's big hair look. The plot line had initial promise - Hamberger is approached by an unknown person to kill that persons wife. This person and the wife both turn out to be other than advertised, but there the story started to lose my interest. Gratuitous sex and violence have always been par for the course in Hollywood of course. Here, the obvious intent to sell tickets with this fare, as well as - admittedly - one of the hottest actresses of the time, soured me.
    4Uriah43

    Good Cast but Poorly Directed

    This film essentially begins with a New York City private detective known simply by the last name of "Hamberger" (Billy Dee Williams) being offered $100,000 by a rich man named "Alex Burton" (Dennis Hallahan) to kill his wife. Although he has no intention of doing going through with it, Hamberger accepts a down payment of $25,000 and then heads out to the house where the man's wife lives. When he gets there, he tells "Sharon Burton" (Morgan Fairchild) of her husband's murderous plans and, after spending the night with her, returns to his apartment. Not long after that he is arrested for the murder of Sharon Burton. However, upon being taken to the morgue he meets the real "Alex Burton" (now played by John Beck) and discovers that the body identified as being that of Sharon Burton is not the same woman he met at the house. And since his prints have been recovered from that house, he realizes that he has been set up. To that effect, he is given only a couple of days to find the real killer or be charged with the crime. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that-considering the cast-I honestly expected this to be a better movie than it actually turned out to be. As it was, the acting wasn't that good and the plot was so completely unrealistic that it was nothing short of laughable. That being said, I cannot in good conscience rate this film any higher than I have. Slightly below average.
    kmshumway

    Never seen it, but...

    I was hired as an extra and was waiting on the set for the day to start when Cohen called me over. "Hey kid - you an actor?" I thought, well that's why I'm here, but he added "I mean can you do lines?" I said sure, and he handed me two pages and said "Learn this." It was the Assistant District Attorney's scene with Billy Dee William's character - and I was beside myself with excitement - and fear, as it included a fairly long rip-him-a-new-one monologue. Apparently, the actor they'd hired was a no show. But about 15 minutes into my "star is born" opportunity, the actor showed - he'd been stuck in traffic. The director promised to "throw me a bone", and I ended up upgraded to playing the dead body on the slab next to the naked girl in the morgue scene.

    Later in the filming, I came on again as Joe Cortese's stand-in, but had to leave the set later in the day with a 102-degree fever. But before falling ill, had a good time with BDW (one of the nicest guys ever on set) and playing cards with the Teamsters between shots.

    Heard later that this film production managed to get the Staten Island Ferry stuck on a sandbar during filming - a first in the Ferry's history!

    Related interests

    Still frame
    Adventure
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in Les Soprano (1999)
    Crime
    Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (1974)
    Mystery
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Larry Cohen started the film, was fired halfway through it and replaced by William Tannen.
    • Quotes

      Hamberger: Spread your legs, baby!

    • Connections
      Referenced in Blue-Jean Cop (1988)

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    FAQ16

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 16, 1987 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Deadly Illusion
    • Filming locations
      • Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA
    • Production company
      • Pound Ridge Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross US & Canada
      • $626,724
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 27m(87 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Ultra Stereo

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